Jury Selection Starts in Boston Marathon Bomber Trial

BOSTON (AP) — The judge overseeing Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trial says it will begin on Jan. 26 and will last three to four months.

Judge George O'Toole Jr. revealed the timeline as jury selection began.

Potential jurors stared intently at Tsarnaev as he sat at a table in the front of the jury assembly room.

Over the next three days, about 1,200 people will be called to federal court to be considered as potential jurors. To begin, O'Toole gave the first 200 initial instructions.

People who lost loved ones or were injured in the 2013 bombings are searching for justice in one of the nation's most closely watched federal death penalty cases in two decades.

The courthouse is under tight security, with dozens of police officers inside and outside the building.

Tsarnaev's lawyers tried for months to get the trial moved, arguing the Boston jury pool was tainted because of the number of locals with connections to the race. They drew parallels to the McVeigh case, which was moved to Denver for similar reasons. But U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr., who is presiding over the case, refused.

Jury selection is expected to be a lengthy process because of extensive media coverage and the thousands of runners, spectators and others in the area affected by the bombings. The process also could be slowed if potential jurors express objections to the death penalty.

Prosecutors say 21-year-old Dzhokhar and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev — ethnic Chechens who had lived in the United States for about a decade — carried out the bombings as retaliation for U.S. actions in Muslim countries. Tamerlan, 26, died after a firefight with police several days after the bombings.

The defense is expected to argue that Dzhokhar had a difficult childhood and was heavily influenced by his elder brother, who authorities believe became radicalized in the last few years of his life, including during a six-month trip to Dagestan and Chechnya in 2012.